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(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

D. MoF. MOORE.

ELECTRIC LUMINOUS ALPHABET AND BOARD FOR SAME. No. 602,958. Patented Apr. 26, 1898.

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(No Model.)

. D. MOP. MOORE. ELECTRIC LUMINOUS ALPHABET AND BOARD FOR SAME.

Patented Apr. 26, 1898.

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DANIEL MOFARLAN MOORE, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO THE MOORE ELECTRICAL COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

ELECTRlC'LUMINOUS ALPHABET AND BOARD FOR SAME.

SPECIFICATION forming part Of Letters Patent No. 602,953, dated April 26, 1898.

Application filed December 1'7, 1895- Serial No. 572,421. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern: of any yet tried. It consists of a board or Be it known that I, DANIEL MOFARLAN back A, formedof anysuitable material, pref- MOORE, a citizen of the United States, and a erably wood, and formed after any conceiv resident of Newark, in the county of Essex able design. Upon this are mounted sup and State of New Jersey, have invented a cerporting devices for the characters to be illu- 55 tain new and useful Electric Luminous Alminated, which devices must be thoroughly phabet and Board for Same, of which the folinsulated from one another. Upon each end lowing is a specification. are mounted slotted plates B, in which at one My invention relates to the use of electric end of the board are adjustably secured the lighting for decorative and advertising purposts C, and. at the other end are adjustably 6o poses, and has for its object the construct-ion secured posts D, through which are passed of an apparatus by which the letters of the tension-screws E. To each tension-screw are alphabet, numerals, and ornamental characconnected two wires F or the ends of a wire ters and figures may be made to appear as loop, the opposite ends or end of which are produced by a continuous line of light, or, in secured to one of the posts C.

fact, to consist of an electric lamp fashioned The letters, numerals, or ornamental dcto represent the desired character instead of vices G to be used are formed of tubes of being made up of a number of incandescent glass or other suitable translucent material lamps, as is now the common practice. and provided with teats II, preferably pro 20 In carrying out this invention I employ jecting rearwardly therefrom, as indicated. lamps or illuminating characters constructed These teats are for the reception of electrodes and operating substantially as the lamps fully which may be removable therefrom or lixcd disclosed in patents already granted to me, thereon in any convenient manner, prcferparticularly Patent No. 548,127; and the inably by applying conducting-paint thereto.

2 5 Vention consists, mainly, in the adaptation of These teats are preferablyhollow,though they 7 5 these lamps to the purpose above specified. may be solid, and are inserted between the The invention further consists in the conwires F to hold the characters in place and by struction, combination, and arrangement of their metallic coating to put the characters in parts hereinafter fully described, and set circuit. Little loops of wireI orotherdeviccs,

go forth in the claims. as spiral springs I, Fig. 3, serving to keep In the accompanying drawings, forming a the wires F from spreading, may be placed part of this specification, Figure 1 represents upon said wires, though the wires may be in face view a display or sign board illustratgiven suflicient tension to hold the characters ing my invention. Fig. 2 shows an edge view in place without said keepers.

3 5 thereof and diagrammatically indicates the Instead of using wires F, as just described, manner of supplying the board with current. I may, as above stated, use other supporting Figs. 8 and 4 are detail views, on an enmeans-as, for example, a single wire F at larged scale, showing the construction of the top and bottom of each character, to which characters and the manner of mounting them metallic cups, as J, maybe soldered, the char- 40 upon the board. Fig. 5 is a partially-secacters being provided with teats at top and e tionized side View of the switching apparatus bottom removably fitted to said cups, as inand the interrupters used in connection with dicated in Fig. 4, or these cups might be sothe sign-board. Fig. 6 is a plan view of the cured to the teats and the letters sprung into said apparatus, the cover and interrupter beplace between wires placed side by side hori 5 ing removed. Fig. 7 is a diagram of the cirzontally, as indicated in Fig. a by dotted cir- 5 cuits of my apparatus. cles X.

Any means of support by which the elec- In letters or designs formed of a section of tric current may be conveyed to the charac tube, as the 7 and 1, the teats are located ters to be illuminated may be used, but the at the ends of the section, orin the case of the 50 'one shown has proven the most satisfactory V at the ends and the apex, while in char- Ioo acters formed of an endless tube, as the B, O, and star, the teats are so located as to divide the tube into two equal or nearly equal branches, so that the illumination of both sides of the character will be uniform. All these letters or characters are readily removable and can be rearranged or exchanged for others at will.

Each tubular character is partially exhausted of air or filled with some other rarefled gas, and when connected in circuit, as above described, becomes in reality an elec tric lamp operating as described in my Patent No. 548,127, above referred to. The interrupter described in said patent and the necessary switches for controlling and regulating the current are preferably mounted in a little box K upon the back of the board, as indicated in Fig. 2. In one end of this box is placed a socket L for the reception of a plug through which connection may be made to the source of current, the apparatus in the box being connected to said socket. I have so designed said apparatus that it may be used upon the ordinary incandescent circuit, and by means of a connection, as M, having at one end the plug fitting socket L and at the other a plug q fitting an incandescentlamp socket, connection may be readily made by taking a lamp from the socket and inserting the plug y in its place, as diagrammatically illustrated in Fig. 2.

In operating the lamps or illuminating characters above described I prefer to employ an interrupter operating substantially as that disclosed in my patents already referred to, though current may be supplied to said lamps or characters in other ways. The interrupter illustrated at N is substantially the same as that set forth in my patent last referred to and consists of a receptacle having the highestpossible degree of vacuum and containing an armature a, mounted on a spring having a bias toward a fixed contact I) and said spring and contact having leaders extending out through the wall of the receptacle. I preferably make the interrupter N removable, and for that reason terminate the leaders specified with eontact-pieces c and (Z, rigidly mounted upon said receptacle. I also preferably mount the interrupter on the cover of the box and arrange the circuits thereto in a manner such that on raising the cover the circuit will be broken, and thus insure the closure of the box when the apparatus is in operation and dead-circuits when the apparatus is exposed. The interrupter may, however, be mounted in any other position desired. To hold the interrupter in plaee,it is slippcdnnder or into a band or clasp O, secured to the cover of the box. hen in place in said clasp, the contact (1 rests snugly against a conducting-stop c, secured to the cover, and the contact engages a springcontact f, also secured to the cover. This spring also assists in rigidly holding the interrupter in place.

The magnet P, which operates on the armature a, is placed in the bottom of the box and has a core consisting, n'eferably, of a bundle of wires, which is upturned to bring it into the desired proximity to the armature. An ordinary key-switch Q is located in the box, with its stem protruding, as indicated, so that the circuit may be turned on or off without opening the box. Its contact springs are indicated at "1', between which plays the connector 8, the stem being held in its on and off positions by thesprin gs and squared block shown at T.

I also prefer to employ a safety-switch, which may be closed by the key of switch Q and automatically opened should an extra stress of current enter the coil of magnet P. This switch consists of two springs g and 7L, suitably insulated from one another, as by mounting them upon a block of iiber or vulcanite, as R, which carries the switch Q. On the end of this block is also mounted aspring carrying at its upper end an armature 7;,which is just out of the normal held of core 1*. In this position of armature A contaet h rests against the spring thereof and held there by in engagement with contact g. lVhen an extra stress of current strikes the coil of magnet P, the armature 7t attracted, which allows g to separate from h and interrupt the circuit at that point. The key-stem of switch Q is prolonged beyond the bearing S and has a projection thereon or pin therethrough, as m, by which the spring 9 may be thrown back to allow the armature 7; to return to place.

Referring to Figs. to 7, the circuits may be traced as follows: The leading and return circuits being brought from the incandescent circuit or any other source to the socket L, the circuit is continued from the center contact X over conductor 8 to springs g It, thence through bearing S and switch Q to magnet P, thence to contact U on the side of the box. Here the circuit divides and branch 9 passes by contact V 011 the cover of the box to springeontact e, thence through Z) and the spring of armature a to (Z and c, thence by a contact W, shown as connected directly to the socket and electrically to the rim thereof, with which the return-circuit connects. The other branch leading from contact U is over conductor 10 to one of the supports or sets of wires F, thence through the illuminating characters G to the other support or set of wires F and to the rim of the socket L. The conneetions with the support F may be made in any suitable way, one being indicated in Fig. 5, where the wires 10 are shown as confined under the heads of the screws which hold the plates B in place in the board. The apparatus-box is preferably placed at the end of the board, where the ad justing-screws for wires F are located, and the connection of wires 10 made inside the box with the screws, respectively, of the upper and lower supports F. Following the diagram in Fig. '7 it will be seen that the first impulse of current will pass through the magnet and interrupter and that on the break of circuit in the interrupter current will be through the magnet and the illuminating characters with the eifeot fully disclosed in the patent above referred to. Instead, however, of the circuit passing, as just stated, on the break of circuit in the interrupter connections may be made, as indicated by the dotted lines V, so that it will be only a self-induced current that will traverse the illuminating characters.

In Figs. 5 to 7 I have shown and'prefer to use, though not absolutely necessary, a lightning-arrester across the leaders at the point of connection thereof with my apparatus, as indicated at Z, which, as shown, may be located in one corner of the apparatus-box. The part Z also has the function of a sparkarrester in preventing the flow to the lights or to the generator of excessive currents of induction from the apparatus in the box.

Many changes in the construction and arrangement of the various parts of my apparatus as above set forth may be made and any number of characters and variety of designs constructed and used upon the displayboard and still be within the domain of my invention.

That I claim as my invention is 1. The combination with the back-piece or board A, of the parallel wires F, stretched across said board and mounted adjustably thereon, suitable tension devices for said wires, and hollow vacuous receptacles provided with electrodes adapted to enter between the parallel wires for holding said receptacles in place, substantially as set forth.

2. The combination with the board or backpiece A, provided with parallel conductors F, adjustable laterally thereon, of illuminating characters consisting of translucent hollow vacuous receptacles provided with hollow rearwardly-extending projections surrounded by electrodes adapted to fit between the conductors F, and hold the receptacles in place, substantially as set forth.

3. An illuminating character consisting of a translucent hollow vacuous receptacle provided with hollow, lateral, rearwardlyextending projections in combination with separated terminals of an electric circuit adapted to removably hold one or more of said characters, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

4. The combination with the apparatus-box, of a magnet located therein, and the interrupter secured to the cover of the box in a position such that when the cover is closed, the armature of the interrupter will be placed in the field of the magnet.

5. The combination with the apparatus-box, of an interrupter removably mounted on the cover thereof, two contacts mounted on said cover and electrically engaging or connecting with the terminals of the interrupter, and contact-plates located in the box to engage with said contacts when the cover is closed and complete the circuit through the interrupter.

6. The combination with the apparatus-box, of a clasp mounted therein, two contacts also mounted therein adjacent to the clasp, and an interrupter provided with exterior contacts connected to the terminals thereof and adapted to engage with the contacts in the box when the interrupter is inserted in the clasp.

7. The combination with the interrupter and the magnet operating on the armature thereof, of a supplemental armature controlled by said magnet but out of its normal field, a circuit-breaker one member of which normally rests against the latter armature in circuit-closing position but moves therefrom and opens circuit when an extra stress of current flows in the coil of said magnet, and means for simultaneously controlling the circuit of the magnet and said circuit-breaker.

8. The combination with the interrupter and the magnet operating it, of another armature out of the normal field of said magnet, a circuit-breaker held normally closed by said armature but adapted to open when the armature is attracted, the key controlling the circuit of the magnet, and a projection on said key for restoring the circuit-breaker t0 the normal position.

Signed at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, this 6th day of December, A. D. 1895.

DANIEL MOFARLAN MOORE.

Witnesses:

WILLIAM H. OAPEL, D. H. DECKER. 

